Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Pumping Nylon
Book Review: A very valuable and useful book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a must. It trains the right hand and the left hand, and can be of great use to guitarists of any stylistic preference (particularly fingerstylists of course). It has many exercises which, if practised diligently will improve or maintain anyone's technique.Scott Tennant is a master guitarist and a very fair minded person who presents information in the manner that a coach or advisor would, rather than in a heavy-handed or authoritarian way.
As for the nails controversy, people spend far too much energy focusing on that. Tennant gives some advice and acknowledges that different things can work for different people. It's just guidelines. No less an authority than John Williams is quoted (by Christopher Parkening) as saying "You can't tell a thing about a guitarist by their fingernails". So I guess if it works for you, it works. At any rate, I would never dismiss this book just because some classical guitarists disagree with the fingernail advice.
This book is highly recommended.
Book Review: Absolutely the best for the beginning Classic Guitarist
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't bother with the "Sour Grapes" review from the so called professional guitarist above. This book is quickly becoming the De-Facto standard teaching guide for the classic guitar. In the last three years I have had three seperate teachers and they ALL used this book somewhere in their teachings. The included warmup routine is worth the price alone. The practice routines are carefully organized in a way that allows you to pick the areas you feel need the most improvement. Thanks Scott for a great book. Well done!Book Review: Anemic and incorrect
Summary: 1 Stars
From having played professionally for many years, this little guide has some very serious mistakes on the care and filing of the fingernails. This is most detrimental to the welfare of the playing of a nylon string guitar, for anyone who evers wants to play well.Book Review: Emphasis on technique, NOT music
Summary: 2 Stars
After playing all the exercises in this volume with three students I will say this work is probably not great for anyone.
It MIGHT be good for those who sight-read like robotic stenographers and who also lack the imagination to invent their own exercises. Otherwise, it can only benefit the publisher and author who stand to make a few bucks from the misleadingly macho title.
My opinion is based on these observations:
--- Technique is supposed to be a means to an end, not the end itself. This focuses on tricky techniques, speed and endurance, not good composition or musicality. Trivial scalar and arpeggiated passages might impress the uneducated or inexperienced. They will do little to develop understanding of music theory or a marketable repertoire.
--- The exercises herein are derivative; nothing new or unique. Though most may be legally "original" in the non-plagiarized sense, they are sophomoric. Any intermediate classical musician will immediately recognize these are miniscule excerpts of popular lute and guitar works that have merely been lengthened or expanded by an immature player attempting to impress equally immature students. First-year students will have have already confronted these techniques in standard guitar literature. You would do much better to learn an entire Bach piece from beginning to end, even with flubs, than to master every vapid trick in this book.
--- This work will only serve to depress, mislead and confuse those who might otherwise show some interest in classical guitar. The author is only showing speed and volume chops, not an inspiring educated love for music, the instrument or the genre. Very little concern is shown for tone production or interpretation. That's because there is little here to "interpret." Play it. Play it faster. Play it louder... that's all this is.
--- The reading, though rudimentary, looks complicated to neophytes, and is therefore intimidating. It does not progress in any logical fashion from one lesson to the next. This only serves to squelch student-motivation, not nurture it. Swirling Ant-hills of notes in Sharp-keys do not help students learn to read or understand music. The exercises here are of the same dull sensibility as other Über-dweebs; as if Arnold Schwarzenegger or any other self-absorbed, muscle-bound, Teutonic-twit attempted to play guitar.
--- The tittle indicates a complete misunderstanding of musical discipline. Either that, or the work was commissioned by a profiteering publisher using a quasi-developed player as his dupe. Maybe this title is an artifact of modern fixations on superficial power over spiritual depth. In which case, the author deserves some respect as a moderately-clever but misdirected & opportunistic marketeer. The title obviously appeals to shallow guitarists.
If you have experience playing classical guitar, you are free to disagree with these opinions.
If you have any experience TEACHING guitar, I doubt you will.
Book Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a self-taught, early intermediate player. Following the warm-up routine made me aware of a couple of weak points in my technique. Just becoming aware of the problems has gone a long way to correcting them. I look forward to spending more time working with the exercises. I am certain that anyone who puts in some diligent work with Pumping Nylon will become a better player. I was surprised at how quickly I improved by following Mr. Tennant's instructions. About his controversial advice on nail shaping: it's an individual thing so you have to do your own experimenting. Even if his ideas on nail shaping (a small section in the book) don't work for you, I'm certain that the rest of the book will help you improve. It is well worth the price. Be aware that this is not a method book and you do need to be able to read standard notation for this edition.